A prior art cable feeding tool for telephone cable is commercially available from General Machine Products Company, Incorporated, 3111 Old Lincoln Highway, Trevost, Pa. 19407. Such tool is known as a "Split Cable Feeder" and comprises split entrance and exit sleeve units for the cable and an elongated, flexible split tubular structure joining those two sleeve units. The tubular structure would, if not split, be circular in cross section and of corrugated configuration in the longitudinal direction, and it would consist lengthwise of a large number of ring-like segments longitudinally interlocked with each other by crimping or overlapping of the corrugations of adjacent segments in a manner whereby those segments may relatively slide in frictional contact to angularly tilt relative to each other at the joint thereof, and whereby, accordingly, the structure as a whole is flexibly compliant and may be bent into various shapes which tend to be self-sustaining by virtue of the frictional contacts of such segments at such joints, but the structure will have no tendency to return to its original shape.
The described tubular structure has, however, the further feature that it is longitudinally split into upper and lower similar half-tube lengths of semi-circular cross section which are hingedly coupled on the backside of the tube by a series of hinges longitudinally spaced therealong and which, further, may, on the front side of the tube, be selectively coupled to, or uncoupled from, each other by a series of latch or hasp devices spaced along and secured to such tube on such front side. The half-tube lengths are coated with rubber to improve their structural integrity.
In operation, a cable may be inserted into or removed from the feeder in a sidewise manner (as opposed to leading the cable through the feeder) by opening the split sleeve units to separate the two halves of each thereof and by uncoupling at the front side of the tube the two half-tube lengths of the tube structure and then swinging these half-tube lengths away from each other at such front side while remaining coupled to each other by the hinged coupling thereof on the back side of the tube. After the cable has been sidewise inserted into or removed from the feeder, its split sleeve units are closed and the half-tube lengths thereof are recoupled on the front side of the tubular structure to again form a closed tube.
The described prior art cable feeder has the disadvantages that it is easily damaged, wears out rapidly, and, also, does not lend itself as well as desired to opening or closing of the tube structure because the entireties of the two halves of such structure must simultaneously be swung away from or towards each other.
Also known to the prior art from U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,394,920 and 3,411,189 are cable guide devices comprising an elongated flexible roller support consisting of articulated links (joined together as are the links in bicycle chains) and, also, rollers mounted by such support and over which the cable is passed. Such devices, however, are used for guiding cable around a bend in a duct therefor, are permanently installed and are to be distinguished from cable feeding tools.